Featured Picture: Martina Plunger Beech on the hill with the Stifel US Ski Group. Supplied by Martina Plunger Beech.
Bear in mind the saying, “There’s no ‘I’ in group?” That couldn’t be extra true for athletes competing on the highest degree.
Remaining on the prime of the rostrum takes extra than simply expertise and exhausting work; it requires a powerful, devoted assist group. And it’s not simply fellow athletes of their nook. We’re speaking coaches, sports activities scientists, physiotherapists, managers, brokers, sponsors, household, and the record goes on.
Out of that assist system, physiotherapists are far more than harm fixers; they’re key gamers in an elite athlete’s efficiency and long-term success.
Physiotherapists play an important function in harm prevention, ache administration, and restoration methods, whereas additionally supporting and guiding power coaching to optimize efficiency and long-term well being.
Martina Plunger Beech has constructed her profession supporting athletes by means of each stage. She has labored with prime organizations, together with the Stifel US Ski Group and the Paralympic Ski & Snowboard Group, runs her personal firm, and now brings her experience to Crimson Bull.
With the Olympic season approaching, Martina presents helpful perception into low season preparation and the way a group can work collectively to keep up a wholesome and assured setting below the strain of peak competitors.
From Racer to Physio: Martina’s Ardour was Born on the Slopes
Rising up within the Italian Dolomites, with a ski slope exterior of Martina’s door, racing grew to become a key a part of her life. She was passionate concerning the sport, competing severely till the age of 16.
Nevertheless, by that time she had already undergone 4 knee surgical procedures and had sustained a number of fractures.
“I’d seen the within of docs’ and physios’ workplaces extra typically than the end line throughout race day,” she defined. “So, I began learning the anatomy posters within the ready rooms. That’s when it grew to become clear to me that I wished to work within the medical area.”
Past Borders: Constructing a World Physio Profession
From the beginning of her profession in physiotherapy, Martina found the vastness of the sphere. Drawn to the enterprise facet of the career, she took the leap and opened her personal clinic in 2012. Since then, she has constantly labored as a freelancer or contractor.
She said, “Organising my profession on this means gave me the liberty to discover totally different fields and work throughout a number of tasks concurrently, in each sports activities and company settings.”
Martina labored with numerous athletes from a slew of various sports activities, together with soccer, dance, and working. For alpine ski racing, she devoted over 5 years to the Stifel US Ski Group, which she discovered the expertise to be “extremely particular and rewarding.”
“I loved the laid-back way of life that the US Ski Group is known for in Europe,” she said. “Culturally, working with US groups may be very totally different from working with European groups. They’re away from house for a lot of the season, which creates a singular dynamic. I discovered it crucial to be with the group as constantly as attainable.”
A Shift to One-Athlete with Crimson Bull
Martina has just lately launched into an thrilling new chapter, working as a contractor for Crimson Bull, primarily collaborating with Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, a distinguished Norwegian-Brazilian World Cup alpine ski racer.
She sees this transition to working carefully with a person athlete as a possibility to discover a extra immersive, deeply related, and uniquely dynamic course in her profession.
She said, “[Working with one athlete,] there’s extra time to give attention to the main points, to guage progress completely, and to remain versatile. It permits for individualized, uncompromised care and the chance to experiment and refine protocols in the course of the pre-season.”
Laying the Groundwork: Preparation for the Olympic 12 months
“Don’t change what’s working. Dial in consistency. That consistency provides much more worth and readability heading into a significant occasion than any last-minute tweak,” Martina explains.
As a physio assists an athlete or a number of athletes heading right into a high-pressure, peak 12 months just like the 2026 Winter Olympics, it’s essential to stay to what already has been working. Final-minute adjustments, typically launched by well-meaning workers hoping to achieve an edge, can create pointless complexity and disrupt an athlete’s focus.
Any changes to coaching or assist ought to occur early within the season, giving athletes time to adapt. A clean, predictable rhythm is essential for efficiency.
She notes, “In fact, harm or rehab conditions require flexibility, however for wholesome athletes, consistency is the simplest technique.”
Martina emphasizes the significance of shut collaboration, notably in the course of the pre-season months earlier than competitors begins. She means that being bodily current (fitness center or conditioning camps) permits physiotherapists to extra simply establish patterns, compensations, or early warning indicators, whereas additionally facilitating instant communication with coaches.
This proactive strategy can considerably improve the general efficiency and well-being of athletes.
“By the point the primary races arrive, we would like your entire group working on rinse-and-repeat mode: calm, assured, and cohesive,” she said.
Peak Season, Peak Calls for: Supporting Efficiency Beneath Stress
Because the athlete strikes into the height season, with excessive calls for and expectations, Martina believes that: “that is the place the physio’s function turns into important.”
“Amidst the journey, racing, media obligations, and normal pressure, we goal to create pockets of calm and focus. It’s about conserving the athlete grounded: supporting restoration, diet, hydration, and sleep,” she defined.
Martina factors out that every athlete copes with stress in their very own means, making it essential to determine a way of stability, particularly with main occasions just like the Olympics on the horizon.
It’s crucial to work collectively as a united group to construct a basis of belief. With sturdy relationships comes deep understanding, and with that, physiotherapists can really tailor care that empowers the athlete to carry out at their finest.
